India's growing direct selling industry has initiated Aadhaar-based 'Know Your Customer' (KYC) process for better control and compliance with norms.Regulated sectors such as banking, insurance, telecom and exchange industry players (broker/sub-brokers and their clients) were among the first to introduce Adhaar-based 'e-KYC' to meet the stringent norms of their respective regulators.Joining the bandwagon is now the direct selling industry, which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs (MCA). It is switching to Aadhaar-based e-KYC for its vast network of independent representatives (IRs).

Direct Selling is a heavily-employment generating industry. Currently, an estimated 50 lakh people are engaged in India by this sector. This number is expected to increase to 1.8 crore by 2025, as per a FICCI-KPMG report.

The direct selling companies have stepped up their efforts to have KYC for all their IRs, particularly since the issuance of Model Direct Selling Guidelines by the MCA last year.

India's ranking in terms of the size of the sector also improved in 2015-16 to 20th as against 22nd in 2014-2015, the report said. The Industry is poised to reach up to Rs 25,826.1 crore by 2024-25.

Under the guidelines, the direct selling companies are mandated to maintain a "Register of Direct Sellers" with relevant details such as verified proof of address, proof of identity and PAN card details of each enrolled IR